by Ty Tagami | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Georgia students who miss too much school could wind up losing their rights to drive or to play sports.
Those were among the recommendations of a legislative study committee that completed its work Thursday.
A growing number of students are missing a tenth or more of each school year, a problem exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
If left unchecked, it will become a major problem for the state, said Sen. John F. Kennedy, R-Macon, who led the committee.
“It’s all about the kids, but it’s also an economic issue for the state of Georgia. It is a workforce issue for the state of Georgia,” said Kennedy, who stepped down this summer as the Senate president pro tem to run for lieutenant governor.
The bipartisan committee voted unanimously on a host of recommendations that could turn into legislation.
Among the proposals were punitive approaches, including temporary suspension of licenses and of participation in team sports for chronically absent students. There were also recommendations that require more support for families, mandating that schools intervene thoroughly before referring students to juvenile court.
The lawmakers also talked of banning cellphones in high schools.
Sen. Shawn Still, R-Johns Creek, the majority caucus chair of the Senate, said chronic absenteeism will join literacy and social media as the top three educational concerns next year.
Another Senate study committee recently concluded its research into the impact of social media and smartphones on Georgia children.
That committee was convened after tech companies sued to block a new state law that sought to limit their access to children.
That committee has yet to issue recommendations, but co-chair Sen. Sally Harrell, D-Atlanta, talked of targeting social media algorithms and of including high schools in the state’s ban on cellphones in elementary and middle schools, which takes effect next fall.
The members of the absenteeism study committee heard from national, regional and state experts about the manifold causes of absenteeism. Poverty and the fear of bullying were top reasons.
On Thursday, Carol Lewis, the president and CEO of Communities in Schools of Georgia, described fundamental unmet needs.
Providing feminine hygiene products had improved attendance, she said, adding that a lack of clothing and washing machines were another obstacle.
Lewis, whose nonprofit supports students at risk of dropping out in a quarter of Georgia’s school districts, described one student who collected rainwater to wash his clothes.
She asked the senators to imagine a child who had to sleep in school clothes with a bed-wetting little brother.
“You know what you smell like, and you’re having to sit in class all day,” Lewis said. “They’re going to try to find a way not to be there. And that happens regularly.”
Another nonprofit that offers mental health services in a handful of Georgia middle and high schools said anxiety was a common unaddressed problem. Dr. Juliana Chen, the chief medical officer for Cartwheel Care, asked lawmakers to increase funding to cover services in elementary schools, as well.
When Still calculated that the additional cost of $20,000 for each of Georgia’s more than 1,800 elementary schools would pencil out to $34 million for the state budget, Democrat RaShaun Kemp of Atlanta was stunned.
“That is a large amount,” the senator said.
